How to Buy a Seat in Azerbaijan's Parliament

By Arifa Kazimova and Daisy Sindelar

Money, revenge, and even murder have converged in a scandal that goes all the way to the president's inner circle.

Azerbaijan's President Aliyev answers questions during a news conference in Prague on April 5, 2012. (David Cerny/Reuters)

Azerbaijan's latest political scandal is
equal parts Shakespeare and soap opera -- a tale of revenge, money, and
possible murder that threatens to unsettle the ruling regime ahead of
the presidential election this fall. It began in September, when Elshad Abdullayev, a former university
rector, published what he says is a covert video of himself negotiating
the purchase of a parliament seat ahead of elections in 2005.

The video appears to show Abdullayev seated across a table from Gular
Ahmadova, a powerful lawmaker from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. Ahmadova tells Abdullayev his seat in Azerbaijan's parliament, the Milli
Majlis, is guaranteed -- but only if he doubles the 500,000 manats
(roughly $637,000) that he's already paid. When Abdullayev protests, Ahmadova -- who refers to herself by her
nickname of "mother-in-law" -- waves an angry finger, saying, "That's my
price. It's up to you to decide."

Ahmadova and an assistant, Sevinj Babayeva, go on to assure Abdullayev
that his money has been delivered to "master Ramiz" -- an alleged
reference to Ramiz Mehdiyev, the presidential chief of staff and
Azerbaijan's second-most powerful man after President Ilham Aliyev.

Avenging A Kidnapping

Since then, Abdullayev has published a total of seven videos that he
says implicate the 74-year-old Mehdiyev as the head of a massive
corruption ring that often resorts to brutal methods to achieve its
ends. Abdullayev has also threatened to release more videos in the weeks
and months ahead unless Mehdiyev is removed from power. In the most recent video released this week, Abdullayev offers a visual
explanation for his vengeful campaign -- footage of his brother, Mahir, a
major in the National Security Ministry, who was arrested and later
disappeared in 2003.
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Abdullayev says his brother is the victim of a kidnapping ring run by
security services acting at Mehdiyev's behest, and claims to have paid
millions of dollars in ransom in a fruitless attempt to secure his
brother's release. Several of Abdullayev's videos document his efforts to save his brother. In one 2007 clip, he is shown speaking to a district court judge overseeing the case.

The judge, Agababa Babayev, says he has personally intervened, calling a
private meeting with the interior minister to ask for Mahir
Abdullayev's release. Babayev -- who is no relation to Babayeva -- went on to rise through
Baku's judicial ranks but was fired last month after the release of
Abdullayev's video. He has rejected the content of the video as fake.

Abdullayev, who fled Azerbaijan several years ago and has since settled
in Strasbourg, France, now says he sought to buy a seat in the Melli
Mejlis only in order to help rescue his brother, who is now presumed
dead. In an interview, Abdullayev said he
decided to go public with his videos because Azerbaijani officials
refused to investigate his claims of Mehdiyev's ties to his brother's
kidnapping and the vote-rigging ring.

"Law professors here, and my own lawyer, all say that if they had even
10 percent of the evidence that I have they could easily take this case
to court. Even before the European Court of Human Rights," he said. "They ask me why I even bothered coming to France. But my life was in
danger. I wasn't left with any other choice. I wanted to file a claim in
court in Azerbaijan. But they began to terrorize my family."

A Mysterious Death

Abdullayev, a rare university rector who is able to proffer up
million-dollar bribes, is far from an innocent whistle-blower. He is
suspected of profiting substantially from corruption while serving as
the head of Azerbaijan International University, which was shut down in
2010 amid accusations of illegal admissions procedures and bribery.

But his video campaign,
which captures everything from cold-blooded ransom negotiations to
eager bureaucrats using screwdrivers to pry open locked suitcases of
cash, is having a growing impact in Baku. A suspicious death has also added to the stakes. Ahmadova's assistant, Babayeva -- who is caught on one of the tapes
referring to Mehdiyev as a "greedy rat" for failing to deliver a
$50,000 kickback -- died in a Turkish hospital on December 26,
reportedly of heart failure.

Her son, Aykhan Mammadov, says he believes Babayeva was poisoned and has
accused Ahmadova of slipping a slow-working toxin into his mother's
food during a dinner in Baku last autumn, just days before the first
video was released. Mammadov said Babayeva soon fell ill and was sent to Istanbul for
treatment, at Ahmadova's insistence. Ahmadova, he believes, knew about
the videos and wanted to remove Babayeva in order to appease Mehdiyev.

"She told my mother to go to Turkey for a while so things could cool
down. Days passed, more days passed, and now my mother is dead,"
Mammadov said. "Gular Ahmadova called her every day and said that she had talked to
Ramiz Mehdiyev and that everything was going to be fine. She was staying
with Gular Ahmadova's friends. She couldn't go out by herself. They
accompanied her everywhere."

Ahmadova rejected the allegations, describing Babayeva as "sick" and
"frightened" and said she refused to comment on "silly
things."

But with the impact growing in "Gulargate" -- as the video scandal has
come to be known -- Ahmadova has become the latest figure to fall under
suspicion. She has been stripped of her ruling-party membership, and
this week was placed under house arrest in connection with her
appearance in the Abdullayev video.

Closing In?

It remains uncertain whether Mehdiyev himself will fall under scrutiny. A
longtime member of the Azerbaijani elite, Mehdiyev was a close ally of
the country's first long-term post-Soviet president, Heydar Aliyev, and
is credited with personally orchestrating the controversial handover to
his son, Ilham, in 2003. As kingmaker, Mehdiyev -- who serves as the chair of the state
anticorruption commission and wields near-absolute control over
Azerbaijan's internal affairs -- has long been seen as politically
untouchable.

But he is also viewed with contempt by the formidable Pashayev clan of
Aliyev's wife, Mehriban, whose members are rumored to resent his
old-school grip on Azerbaijan's domestic affairs. Abdullayev says he has personally appealed to Mehriban Aliyeva for
support in his campaign against Mehdiyev. This, combined with the heavy
coverage of Gulargate in pro-government media, has fueled rumors that
the Pashayevs are actively seeking the chief of staff's ouster.

The scandal comes just months before Azerbaijan heads into an October
presidential election in which Aliyev is widely expected to stand for --
and win -- a newly constitutional third term. The publication of politically damaging videos ahead of the vote is
reminiscent of last year's parliamentary elections in Georgia, where the
ruling party of Mikhail Saakashvili was rejected by voters angered by a
series of shocking prison-abuse videos released by an opposition
supporter. Azerbaijan's beleaguered opposition, sensing a rare opportunity to chip
away at the Aliyev monolith, have already sought to capitalize on
Gulargate. The Public Chamber, a gathering of the country's mainstream
opposition groups, has publicly called on the government to investigate
Abdullayev's claims.

Prosecutors have opened probes into both the vote-rigging allegations
and Mahir Abdullayev's kidnapping. They are also examining the validity
of Abdullayev's videos, which are seen as deeply compromising for the
ruling regime. But political analyst Huseynbala Salimov says Abdullayev's videos are
not likely to spark a Georgia-style electoral defeat in a country like
Azerbaijan, whose votes are seen as highly rigged.

Salimov says even in the event of a Mehdiyev ouster, there is no strong
opposition candidate to challenge Aliyev -- and may not be for years. "The government is represented by old people," he says. "They'll be
leaving the political scene very soon, as a matter of course. But if the
fundamental principles of the system don't change, substituting one
official for another isn't going to change anything."